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Health 

Without Medicine 


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Theodore H. Mead 


NEW YORK 
DODD, MEAD, & CO. 
PUBLISHERS 











































HEALTH WITHOUT 


MEDICINE 














HEALTH 


WITHOUT MEDICINE 



THEODORE H. MEAD 



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^ copyright 


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NEW YORK 

DODD, MEAD, AND COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 

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Copyright , 1890 , 

By Dodd, Mead, and Company. 


LC Control Number 



2008 461874 


SSmbmstto Jiwgs: 

John Wilson and Son, Cambridge 


































HEALTH WITHOUT MEDICINE. 


“Will they never stop tolling that 
bell! ” I said at last aloud, and sat up 
in bed. It was broad daylight, but that 
is the case in midsummer, even on the 
south coast of England, for about twenty 
hours out of the twenty-four; so, pushing 
back the curtains which hung in English 
fashion from a canopy at the bedhead, I 
got out my watch from under the pillow. 
It was not yet three o’clock. Scarcely 
three hours had I enjoyed of much needed 
and much longed-for sleep, and to be 
roused up in this hopeless manner was 
discouraging indeed. Still the bell con¬ 
tinued its steady beating. What church 
in Brighton could be calling to service at 


6 HEALTH WITHOUT MEDICINE. 


this hour of the night in such an importu¬ 
nate way? Finally I arose, and going to 
the oriel window, looked up and down 
the street. It lay in all the stillness, if 
not in the shadow, of night. Not a living 
creature was to be seen or heard in it, nor 
in the churchyard opposite, where the 
ancient church of gray flints, sitting long 
and low among its yews and elms, looked 
as if it must have been there from time 
immemorial. But, though the sashes were 
wide open, the sound of the ringing was 
no louder, and to my bewilderment did 
not appear to come from any particular 
direction, but seemed to be in the air. 
Struck with a sudden thought, I laid my 
finger on my pulse. The beats coincided 
with the clang of the bell; the tolling was 
in my own head. My heart sank; and I 
went hopelessly back to bed once more, 
to wait with open eyes, as many a time be¬ 
fore, for the slow hours to pass and day 
at last to begin. 


HEALTH WITHOUT MEDICINE. 7 


At breakfast I acceded finally to my 
host’s wish to send for his own physician, 
with reluctance it must be confessed; 
and it was not long before the gentle¬ 
man in question made his appearance in 
the pleasant drawing-room. He was lean, 
muscular, red-bearded —this English doc¬ 
tor— and plain spoken beyond anything 
to which the ears of American patients 
are accustomed. I told him of my sleep¬ 
lessness and loss of strength and shortness 
of breath, and how two different sorts of 
headaches which had tormented me at 
intervals for many years had now joined 
forces with a new and formidable ally, a 
heavy, dull pain in the back of the head, 
and among them had obliged me to give 
up my business and left me little peace 
day or night. Doubtless to his experi¬ 
enced eye my sunken cheek and lack¬ 
lustre eye spoke as unmistakably as my 
words. He inquired, however, about my 
habits of life and work. 



8 HEALTH WITHOUT MEDICINE. 


“ Yaas,” he said, “ I understand. You 
Americans think that it pays to burn the 
candle at both ends. You have been try¬ 
ing, like the rest of your countrymen, to do 
two men’s work, and this is the natural re¬ 
sult. English moderation pays better than 
Yankee ‘ go-aheadativeness.’ You get on 
pretty fast for a time, but you can't stay 
with us. You are worn out at an age 
when we are in our prime. Now it is my 
duty to tell you that if you continue the 
course you have followed hitherto your 
life will be a short one — indeed, if you 
keep on as you are going just now, a 
very short one — and no medicine will 
do you any good. If all the doctors in 
the United States tell you anything differ¬ 
ent don’t you believe them, for it’s all 
rubbish. But in my opinion you can 
save your life yourself if you choose to 
take the trouble.” 

“ Well, doctor, * all that a man hath will 
he give for his life,’ says Job, and I am 


HEALTH WITHOUT MEDICINE. 9 


quite of his mind. What do you wish me 
to do?” 

“ Well, in the first place, you must take 
a great deal more exercise, and you must 
give up every mental exertion not abso¬ 
lutely unavoidable. I would rather you 
did not even look at a newspaper.” 

“ But, Doctor,” I expostulated, “ you 
don’t know how much exercise I have 
been in the habit of taking, — a great deal 
more than most Americans.” 

“ That makes no difference,” said he; 
“you have not taken half enough, and 
what you have taken has not been of the 
right sort. Your regular, daily exercise 
should be severe enough to send the blood 
to the brain. Your brain has not been 
properly nourished, and there are symp¬ 
toms of considerable irritation at the base 
of it; but in my opinion the difficulty has 
not yet become chronic. You can never 
do again, however, the work you have done 
in the past; that you must make up your 






IO HEALTH WITHOUT MEDICINE. 


mind to. You must live the life of the 
English country gentleman, — spend as 
much of your time as you can in the open 
air, do as little thinking as possible, and 
no reading at all, and twice every day 
take exercise, especially of the upper 
part of the body, that will send the blood 
to the brain.” 

These words “send the blood to the 
brain,” repeated with so much emphasis, 
struck me with the force of a revelation. 
Something told me that therein was the 
solution of the whole difficulty, and I re¬ 
solved to follow the advice; but how to 
begin was the probem. 

“ You are fond of riding; get a saddle- 
horse and go up on the Downs,” said the 
doctor. 

“But can my head bear the shaking? 
I have had to give up omnibuses, and even 
walking is painful to me. Almost all the 
way from Liverpool to London I stood up, 
and on my toes, in the railway carriage, 


HEALTH WITHOUT MEDICINE, n 


because the jarring otherwise was too dis¬ 
tressing to be endured.” 

“ You have got to fight this thing 
through,” said he. “ If you do not con¬ 
quer it, it will conquer you.” 

“ Then those cold winds on the Downs 
make my head ache worse, and chill me 
through even in my full winter clothing.” 

“ That is only neuralgic,” said he. “ It 
is true it shows a very depressed condition 
of the nervous system, but if there were 
nothing the matter with you worse than 
that it would be all plain sailing. It won’t 
do for you to go and sit in the sun as you 
have been doing; you must take other 
means of getting warm. You must seek 
relief from such of your headaches as 
are neuralgic by deadening the exces¬ 
sive sensibility of the superficial nerves 
by the use of cold water, and must warm 
yourself up by getting the blood in active 
circulation.” 

All this is in brief the substance of con- 



12 HEALTH WITHOUT MEDICINE. 


sultations at intervals during two or three 
weeks, in the course of which I essayed to 
put in practice the worthy doctor’s advice. 

Brighton is a charming sojourn for the 
American who will give himself up to the 
pleasures and influences of the place with¬ 
out the indefatigable national effort to im¬ 
prove the mind. There are no ruins, no 
cathedrals, no fine buildings, no historical 
associations except the unsavoury memo¬ 
ries of George the Fourth still hanging 
about the Pavilion; but the steep and 
crooked streets have an agreeable quaint¬ 
ness, with their little brick and stuccoed 
houses bright with flowers; from the 
higher portions the view is most pic¬ 
turesque of the gray town and the blue, 
restless channel; the shops along “the 
front,” on the handsome street by the 
water, fronting the broad promenade 
bounded by the sea wall, have an air of 
taste uncommon in England, and rather 
French than British; the very throngs of 




HEALTH WITHOUT MEDICINE. 13 

visitors, who raise the population from its 
usual eighty thousand up to a hundred 
and twenty thousand in the season, add 
a cheerful vivacity to the scene; while 
the broad, shingly beach below the sea¬ 
wall, with its multitudinous life and its 
fleets of oddly rigged boats, is a place I 
never tired of. Then there are pictu¬ 
resque and ancient villages to visit, with 
their little old churches standing all day 
long with open doors; and above the 
town the South Downs, where one can 
ride for miles up against the sky, over the 
long green swells of turf, and often, as far 
as the eye can reach, see not a house or 
fence or tree or even shrub, and not a 
living creature but the rooks and gulls or 
perhaps a shepherd with dog and flock. 
So I explored the town, and drove with 
my friends over the beautiful roads as 
smooth as a floor, and rode a capital 
little bay hunter, though with a pang at 
every step, over the aforesaid Downs, and 


14 HEALTH WITHOUT MEDICINE. 


subscribed to the gymnasium, and bought 
tickets for the “ Royal Tepid Swimming 
Baths,” and in short overdid the matter 
so thoroughly that I was presently laid 
snugly up within doors for a fortnight. It 
was discouraging, but the faith was strong 
within me that though my undue haste 
had got me a tumble, I had found the 
clew which would bring me out of my 
labyrinth of troubles; and I presently 
returned to my American home intend¬ 
ing, if necessary, to abandon business 
altogether and bend every energy to the 
recovery of my health. 

About three years have elapsed since 
that memorable visit to Brighton; and 
now, instead of abandoning business, I 
am able to give it, without fatigue, as 
much time as necessary. Instead of lying 
awake half the night or more after an 
hour’s reading, I can study or work till 
eleven o’clock, sleep like a top, and wake 
refreshed in the morning. I can eat what 



HEALTH WITHOUT MEDICINE. 15 


I like, always of course in moderation. 
I have gained thirty pounds, nearly all 
solid muscle. Furthermore,— and this is a 
detail which will interest valetudinarians,— 
the action of my heart, which had become 
alarmingly weak, has gained strength, and 
there is a perceptible and considerable in¬ 
crease in the capacity of the lungs. As 
for headache, or any other ache, I do not 
have such a thing once a month. 

A result like this, in the case of a man 
already well advanced in life, is certainly 
remarkable ; and there must be many who 
feel themselves or fear themselves to be 
physically on the downward road, but 
know not how to turn back, who would 
be glad to hear how it was accomplished. 
Such will be encouraged to learn that it 
was the work of nothing more miraculous 
than patience and common-sense. The 
cure, or treatment, has consisted simply 
of exercise, cold bathing, and abstinence 
from drugs and stimulants; and if we 


16 HEALTH WITHOUT MEDICINE. 


Americans could only fully appreciate the 
value of these simple and inexpensive 
agencies, it would be of incalculable ad¬ 
vantage to the national health and to our 
well-being, mental, moral, and physical. 
To men and women, to all ages, to all 
classes, they would be of equal value. 
In the case of persons in feeble health, 
indeed, these agencies, natural and harm¬ 
less as they appear, must be made use of 
with care and judgment; and if the reader 
will pardon the apparent egotism, I will 
continue to use the first person and to 
give my own personal experience as the 
best means of bringing the matter home to 
him, as one not only in which he should 
be interested, but in which he, perhaps, 
has actually a duty to perform to himself 
or to others. 

My stay in England was protracted 
some two months after leaving Brighton, 
and I occupied the time in little journey- 
ings hither and thither, spending the 





HEALTH WITHOUT MEDICINE. 17 

Sundays, whenever possible, in the de¬ 
lightful Cathedral cities. Dumb-bells, 
Indian clubs, and such gymnastic appli¬ 
ances were manifestly impossible under 
the circumstances; so I arranged a series 
of exercises which might be carried on in 
any bedroom, without noise or jar, and 
these, with a few modifications, have 
served me ever since. Nobody who has 
not actually tried the experiment knows 
how great a bore such exercises are, and 
how almost irresistible is the tempta¬ 
tion to omit them now and then, — and 
that, too, with the conviction that such 
omission is only the first step toward total 
neglect. To diminish in some degree 
their tiresomeness, it occurred to me 
to make a systematic effort to increase 
my personal symmetry by developing 
those muscles — and there were plenty 
of them — which were conspicuously defi¬ 
cient. My success in this effort, I will 
confess to the sympathetic reader, has 



18 HEALTH WITHOUT MEDICINE. 


given me a pleasure which, it is to be 
feared, might be considered childish by 
some of my friends, but which has cer¬ 
tainly made perseverance easier to me. 
For economy of time, I have found it 
best in the morning to do part of the 
work before my bath and in the intervals 
of preparation for it, and part of it after¬ 
ward while dressing. In this way my 
toilet occupies, from the time of getting 
up till I sit down to breakfast, just about 
an hour; sometimes more, sometimes 
less, for I have to avoid setting the heart 
beating too violently, as well as getting in 
too profuse a perspiration. 

The exercises in question are the fol¬ 
lowing; and I take them in the order 
given, being careful before beginning 
each one to stand perfectly straight with 
the breast thrown forward, and to draw a 
deep breath. Observe that the clothing 
should be loose and of some light woollen 
material. 



HEALTH WITHOUT MEDICINE. 19 

1. Sit down on both heels, and, rising 
suddenly, spring as high as possible into 
the air, alighting without noise on the 
toes. At first, twice, finally ten times. 

2. Stretch the arms out straight and 
rigid in front, horizontally, with clenched 
fists turned palm downward, and swing 
them up and down vigorously, at the 
same time moving them gradually apart, 
always without bending the elbow, till they 
are as far back as possible. Begin with 
ten times and increase gradually to forty- 
six times up and down, with each arm. 

This builds up the muscle on the top 
of the shoulder, and is therefore an exer¬ 
cise useful to men and boys whose shoul¬ 
ders are too sloping, but it will naturally 
be less used by women. 

3. Stand erect and spring up off the 
floor, straightening the leg and changing 
at each spring the position of the feet by 
placing first one in advance and then the 
other. Alight as noiselessly as possible. 


20 health ivithout medicine. 

At first ten times, increasing gradually to 
forty-six times for each foot. 

This exercise is especially good for the 
calves, and therefore equally advanta¬ 
geous for men and women. My own 
practice is to do it at the same time as 
No. 2. 

4. Stretch the arms out in front as 
in No. 2. and swing them horizontally 
backward and fonvard, bringing them 
forward as swiftly as possible, as if to 
strike them together, but stopping them 
when the hands are about six inches 
apart. Beginning with ten, increase grad¬ 
ually to forty-six times. 

This develops the muscle of the breast 
between the ribs and the shoulder, filling 
up the ungraceful hollows too often seen 
there, while at the same time expanding 
the chest; and it is therefore especially to 
be recommended to those who are in¬ 
clined to be round-shouldered. 

5. Draw the fists up in front of the 



HEALTH WITHOUT MEDICINE. 21 


shoulders, and strike forward as forcibly 
as possible, first with one and then with 
the other, by suddenly straightening the 
arm. Begin with ten and increase to 
forty-six times with each. 

This, while working the pectoral mus¬ 
cles, especially dvelops those at the back 
of the upper arm, and will therefore re¬ 
commend itself to the ladies. 

6. Stand erect and kick each foot 
alternately up behind as high and as 
quickly as possible. Begin with ten and 
increase gradually to forty-six times with 
each foot. 

This develops especially the calves and 
the back of the thigh, tending to increase 
the symmetry of the leg. 

My practice is to do this one at the 
same time as No. 5, — a combination 
which will be found to set the blood in 
active circulation with great promptness. 

7. Stand firmly on the left foot, step 
forward about a yard with the right, 



2 2 health without medicine. 


keeping the left knee straight, but bend¬ 
ing the right so that the leg below the 
knee will be vertical, precisely as when 
making a lunge in fencing. Now lean 
forward, touch both hands to the floor, 
and raise them, without bending the el¬ 
bows, as high above the head as possible ; 
touch them again to the floor, and re¬ 
sume your upright position. Now do the 
same stepping forward with the left foot 
and keeping the right knee unbent. Be¬ 
gin with three times each and increase 
to ten times on each foot. 

This is a sort of universal strengthener, 
and if well and energetically done with the 
proper muscular tension, will have a pow¬ 
erful effect on back, loins, and abdomen, as 
well as on legs and arms. When at home 
I use dumb-bells of sixteen pounds each 
for this exercise, diminishing the number 
to five times on each foot. 

8 . Stand erect and swing the arms 
swiftly and alternately in circles, striking 





HEALTH WITHOUT MEDICINE. 23 

out as forcibly as possible with each fist at 
a point about forty-five degrees above the 
level of the shoulder. To make this ex¬ 
ercise at once profitable and graceful, the 
circles should be true and in the same 
vertical plane; that is, the arms should 
not be thrown carelessly about, but should 
pass close in front of the person. Begin 
with twenty times and increase to seventy 
with each arm. When at home, I use 
long and slender Indian clubs of three 
pounds weight each, in which case I swing 
them each forty-six times. For children 
I would recommend clubs of one pound, 
and for women no heavier, but longer 
ones. 

9. The same as No. 8, but reversed. 
Swing each arm in the opposite direction, 
striking out at a point about forty-five de¬ 
grees below the level of the shoulder. 
Begin with twenty times and increase to 
seventy, or with Indian clubs to forty-six. 

10. Swing the clubs as in No. 9, but 


24 HEALTH WITHOUT MEDICINE. 

behind the back, striking out so as to 
straighten the arm in the same manner. 
Begin with five and increase to twenty 
times each. 

n. Swing the clubs as in No. io, but 
behind the back. Begin with two and 
increase to ten each. 

All the exercises with the clubs should 
be favourites with the ladies, as they round 
the arms and shoulders and fill out the 
upper part of the breast, while they have 
a most beneficial influence on the whole 
upper part of the body. 

12. Stand erect with the feet close to¬ 
gether ; raise the open hands as high as 
possible; then bow downward, with the 
head between the arms, without bending 
the knees; touch the fingers to the floor, 
or come as near to it as you can. Do 
this at first once, and increase to five 
times. I could not reach the floor at all 
when I began, but can now lay my open 
palms upon it. 




HEALTH WITHOUT MEDICINE. 25 

This exercise is excellent for the mus¬ 
cles of the stomach and bowels, and very 
developing to those of the back, leg and 
thigh. 

13. Stand firmly on the left foot, and, 
with the knees unbent, raise the right foot 
as high as you can and hold it so for a 
few seconds. Now do the same with the 
left. Then again raising the right foot 
carry it around horizontally to the right till 
it is straight behind, keeping it as high as 
possible; and then bring it back in the 
same way. Do the same with the left. 

These exercises develop the front thigh 
and train the hip muscles. 

14. Place both hands against the wall, 
standing some little distance back, and 
with the knees unbent, lean forward till 
the breast touches it, then push yourself 
as far back as possible. Begin with three 
or four times and continue till you can do 
it ten times, substituting a couple of chairs 
for the wall. 


26 HEALTH WITHOUT MEDICINE. 


This is excellent for breast and arm 
muscles. 

15. Stand erect, stretch out the right 
foot and sit gradually down on the left 
heel, and rise up again without touch¬ 
ing the floor with the right foot or 
with the hands; then do the same on 
the other foot. At first do this once 
on each foot, and gradually increase to 
five times on each foot. Keep the 
lungs inflated, the head up, the shoulders 
back. 

This exercise strengthens the knees and 
develops the front of the thigh; it has 
also a powerful and beneficial effect on the 
concealed muscles of the loins and abdo¬ 
men. It had better, however, by ladies 
and persons in delicate health, be begun 
with both feet, and so continued a consid¬ 
erable time. 

I have stated above what I usually go 
through with from beginning to end twice 
a day, taking for my evening course the 




HEALTH WITHOUT MEDICINE. 27 

hour before dinner. Especial reference 
has been had to the advice of my good 
English doctor, to exercise particularly 
the upper part of the body, and in a 
manner to send the blood to the brain. 
Almost any active young fellow would go 
through the whole list in fifteen min¬ 
utes, perhaps ten; it takes me at least 
twenty and usually more. At the same 
time the doctor’s excellent counsel to 
live as much as possible out of doors 
has not been forgotten. While still in 
England I began by renouncing cabs 
and going everywhere on my own feet, 
and, as it presently appeared, much more 
agreeably and with very little loss of time. 
In this country the climate does not lend 
itself in the same degree to out-door exer¬ 
cises, but I find no difficulty in walking or 
riding on horseback with pleasure and 
profit in all but the very hottest days of 
summer, and I see no reason to doubt that 
the same would be the case with the great 



28 health without medicine. 


majority of my fellow countrymen and 
countrywomen. 

To return to our in-door exercises, it 
is evident that others might with equal 
advantage be chosen by persons of a dif¬ 
ferent physical conformation; and a good 
book to consult on the subject is the sim¬ 
ple and practical little work, “ How to 
get Strong,” by William Blaikie. What¬ 
ever the selection may be, however, a few 
points must receive the greatest attention. 

In the first place a beginning must be 
made with great care and moderation, 
particularly by persons in delicate health. 
The number of repetitions of each exer¬ 
cise given in my list, is that which seems 
to suit me best; but this is a point which 
each one must settle for himself. The 
best costume is a suit of wool, a bathing- 
dress for instance ; and until hardened to 
the exposure, it is well between the exer¬ 
cises to put on a light dressing-gown in 
which to walk about and to recover breath. 



HEALTH WITHOUT MEDICINE. 29 


When you have finished, strip and rub the 
skin dry and warm with a rough towel. 

Let the exercises be sufficiently severe 
to flush the face and start the perspiration ; 
and between them do not throw yourself 
into an easy-chair, but walk up and down 
with head erect and shoulders thrown 
back, drawing long and deep inspirations. 
While exercising, stand straight, with head 
high and lungs fully distended. In this 
way, besides the advantage of the in¬ 
creased supply to the blood of oxygen, 
which is the best of tonics, the new ac¬ 
quisitions of muscle will be adapted to 
keep the chest expanded, instead of hold¬ 
ing it contracted and compressed as would 
otherwise be the case. 

In forbidding the use of medicine, my 
English doctor was willing to make but 
one exception; and that was in favour of a 
little calisaya bark and nux vomica, to be 
used occasionally, but only occasionally, 
as a tonic; and I may here say that on 


30 HEALTH WITHOUT MEDICINE. 

this point, as on every other, the wisdom 
of his advice — which cost me, if my 
memory is correct, just three pounds 
three shillings — has been justified in my 
case in every particular. We are most of 
us inclined to attribute to medicine an in¬ 
fluence almost magical upon the human 
system, — an influence which a little re¬ 
flection would show us is quite beyond its 
powers ; and I must confess that I, for one, 
should be really ashamed to write down 
here a list of the drugs of all sorts which I 
myself have taken, on what might cer¬ 
tainly be considered the best advice to be 
had in this country. Unquestionably they 
did me, as they have doubtless done most 
other people, more harm than good. 

In forbidding stimulants of all kinds, 
my good doctor again made but one ex¬ 
ception, and this time in favour of the 
English national beverage, tea , to be used 
morning and evening, but even this with 
moderation. As for all the others, I had 





HEALTH WITHOUT MEDICINE. 3 * 


used them always sparingly, and it cost me 
no effort to give them up, with one nota¬ 
ble reservation, — how in the world was 
I to make a breakfast without my coffee ? 
It certainly was dry work at first; and 
many times, if I had given way to impulse, 
the teapot would have taken flight out of 
the window, for the very sight of it in the 
morning was exasperating; but repeated 
experiments — for this point was not 
yielded without a struggle — have con¬ 
vinced me that coffee predisposes to 
neuralgic headaches, even if it does not 
actually bring them on. 

The cold sponge-bath, at first some¬ 
what dreaded, soon came to be consid¬ 
ered a luxury, and for many a day has 
taken rank with me among the necessities 
of life. To what extent this is the case 
among our cousins over the water, those 
of us can best judge who have seen the 
batteries of tubs (looking, as the children 
always discover, like immense tin hats) 


32 HEALTH WITHOUT MEDICINE. 

waiting to be sent into the bed-rooms of 
the hotels. In fact the sponge-bath has 
become, we might almost say, a domestic 
fine art in England. On going to our 
room at night in an English house, we 
find the material for it established there 
as a matter of course, and what a picture 
it brings to our eyes of a sort of domestic 
service which seems almost too near the 
ideal ever to be quite realized in our own 
homes. How swiftly and quietly the tidy, 
buxom chambermaid brings in the un- 
wieldly vessel; how deftly she places it 
upon a cloth spread on the floor, and 
approaching a chair throws completely 
over it a large, thick towel, while she lays 
at hand the soap and rough towels for 
friction, and demurely asks, “ Is there 
anything else, sir?” 

However, these harmless-looking imple¬ 
ments, or their equivalents, must be used 
by all beginners with care, — by persons 
of delicate health with very great care; 






HEALTH WITHOUT MEDICINE. 33 


for otherwise they are capable of working 
results directly the opposite of those de¬ 
sired. In the first place, see to it that 
, the room is warm and free from draughts. 
Then begin operations with water scarcely 
cooler than that you have been in the 
habit of using for warm baths, and after 
squeezing it copiously over head and 
shoulders with a big two-handed sponge, 
get out as quickly as you got in, and rub 
briskly from head to foot with a rough 
towel. By and by you can amuse your¬ 
self by polishing up your skin and seeing 
it grow white and fine, with no more ap¬ 
prehension of ill effects from exposure than 
have the boys who in summer scramble 
out of the water and scamper naked along 
some river bank; but at present get into 
your clothes without delay. Next day 
you may lower the temperature of the 
water, but not more than two degrees, 
and continue doing so till you have 
reached the point at which it seems to 
3 


34 HEALTH WITHOUT MEDICINE. 

do you most good, probably somewhere 
about seventy degrees Fahrenheit. It is 
well always to put a thermometer into the 
water, as you cannot judge even approxi¬ 
mately by dipping in the hand. If you 
do not get a healthy reaction, indicated 
by a pleasurable glow, or if after a half 
hour or so your hands or feet get cold, 
there has been something amiss; either 
the water has been too cold or you have 
been too deliberate or the room has not 
been warm enough. 

I trust the reader will pardon what may 
seem to be a lack of good taste in speak¬ 
ing thus at length of my private experience. 
If my suggestions are of service to any one, 
I shall feel repaid for the effort which it 
has cost me to do so. It must be evident 
to every one that if the effects described 
have been produced in the case of a 
man already past maturity, much greater 
may be expected in young persons, per¬ 
haps almost in proportion to their youth. 



HEALTH WITHOUT MEDICINE. 35 


In imperfectly developed boys and girls it 
is probable that by good judgment, watch¬ 
ful care, and perseverance, a complete 
physical transformation may be effected; 
and parents would do well to give the 
matter timely thought. For them Mr! 
Blaikie’s little book, “ Sound Bodies for 
our Boys and Girls,” will be found a 
valuable adviser. 


New York, October, 1889. 


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